Garmin Basecamp users

[booster]

We have been using Basecamp to do routes on the laptop, where they can be easily customized to our selected path, to transfer to the GPS for navigating. As anyone who has used the program knows, it can be very counter intuitive, and help is nearly nonexistent.

There have been two things that I really wanted to be able to do, but hadn't been able to get to work. Both are related to long, fully customized, routes.

The first was to be able to add a waypoint in the middle of customized route, without the entire route recalculating and dumping all our selected roads. The second was to be able to copy out a segment of the route to use. That way I could make a multiday trip, we could do as much, or little, of it as we got to, and the next day start from where we left off. You can do that in the GPS itself by selecting where to from the list, but it will freelance to that point, and sometimes redo the entire route for some reason.

Anyway, I got both to work today (it is raining, so nothing useful to do).

To add a waypoint to a custom route; Create a the new waypoint, it should show up in the left panel with the route and the other waypoints. Left click and hold on the waypoint and drag it to the route you want to add it to in the left panel. When you are over the route a + will show and the route box will show up over the map. Drag the waypoint to the route box and insert it into the route. You will see a line where it is going to be, so you can drop it where you want if it is visible. If not visible, just drop it anywhere and use up/down arrows to move it to where you want it. Hit recalculate and the route will stay the same, with the exception of going to the new waypoint.

To copy out just a segment of a long route and make it a new route. Open the route so you have the route box open to the "properties" tab with "more info" checked. Click to highlight the beginning of the new route on the route list in the route box. Use shift-click to highlight the end of the new route from the list. All the points between the items should highlight. Right click and copy the highlighted items.

No go to someplace wide open on the map, like an ocean, and create two new waypoints. They should show up in the left panel with the other waypoints and routes. Create a "dummy" route with the two points. Open that route and get the route box, which will just show the two points. Right click, paste, the previously copied points into the dummy route. They will show up below the two ocean waypoints. Delete the two ocean waypoints and all that is left is the copied part of the long route, including all the via and shaping points to make it custom. Click recalculate and the route will be made and show up in the left pane.

We will be trying out these on our long trip this year, but I think it is going to make life even easier for us.

[Bruceper]

Love the Garmin.

Hate the software. This might help, I haven't touched the software in over 6 months which is about two weeks after I got it.

[booster]

Originally Posted by Bruceper

Love the Garmin.

Hate the software. This might help, I haven't touched the software in over 6 months which is about two weeks after I got it.

I now that hate well, but it is still the best (only?) decent way to be able to make fully customized routes that ignore the shaping points (don't announce or make you go through them). It also does not require an internet connection so you have it all the time, and don't use up data. I have gotten to the point where I can make routes very quickly and easily for our day to day use and navigating, by finding, and avoiding, some of the weird quirks that happen, or don't, when you expect them. The two items above should put is in pretty good shape for getting what we want.

If you run into any issues or questions, any of us who have been around it more may be able to help.

[eric1514]

Base camp is overly complicated as evidenced by the number of tutorial videos from just Garmin.

If I need a custom route, I use MapQuest and "send" the route and waypoints to my Garmin. You need to be online, unfortunately and the Garmin will try to change the route sometimes, but you can add more waypoints to the MapQuest route to pin the route where you want it. You may end up going back and forth a couple times. It's not great, but even if it were horrible, it would be better than basecamp, which I find unusable.

[booster]

Originally Posted by eric1514

Base camp is overly complicated as evidenced by the number of tutorial videos from just Garmin.

If I need a custom route, I use MapQuest and "send" the route and waypoints to my Garmin. You need to be online, unfortunately and the Garmin will try to change the route sometimes, but you can add more waypoints to the MapQuest route to pin the route where you want it. You may end up going back and forth a couple times. It's not great, but even if it were horrible, it would be better than basecamp, which I find unusable.

We did similar for a while, also, but for us the killer was that the waypoints used for adjusting the route were looked at as required stops. If one was missed either intentionally because of a side trip, or do to a minor map error (that happened fairly often), we would have the Garmin constantly telling us to turn around and go to the point until we stopped and removed the point from the route. Of course, then the Garmin would sometime freelance the route again, though

Garmin seems to have made lots of tutorials for all the things we never do, with lots of linking, tracks, etc, but don't address the necessary details of actually making a route.

I can't take issue with anyone who chooses not to use Basecamp, it is quirky and odd, with a horribly long learning curve. It is also pretty versatile once you figure out how to use it, though. A couple of days ago I just did a first draft of our trip west that we hope to take this year. I have been saving places we want to visit in a folder in Basecamp for about a year, adding them as we ran across them, so those were already done (about 10 places). Doing a route that took the scenic roads we knew of, like the coast highway, and lots of backroads only took about 30 minutes and covered a bit over 6000 miles. It was modified by using the drag and drop, so all the route tweaking went into the route as shaping points, that won't announce on the Garmin, or shows a miles to waypoint in the display. If we miss them and get back on route, they are then ignored and the route picks up where we are. It helped that I was on the 23" screen PC, though, rather than the 11" laptop.

It is pretty obvious that Basecamp was made by programmers for themselves or others of their background, I think. It is not very intuitive for us semi-normal types.

[eric1514]

Originally Posted by booster

We did similar for a while, also, but for us the killer was that the waypoints used for adjusting the route were looked at as required stops. If one was missed either intentionally because of a side trip, or do to a minor map error (that happened fairly often), we would have the Garmin constantly telling us to turn around and go to the point until we stopped and removed the point from the route. Of course, then the Garmin would sometime freelance the route again, though ...

That's a very real issue but my Garmin will do this on its own without MapQuest's help. If I'm traveling a route and decide to look for a rest stop or a gas station and add that to my current route, if I don't stop at the right parking place or I use the wrong pump, according to Garmin, I will have to stop the navigation and then start it again to keep the GPS from trying to calculate a series of U-Turns.

If I sat down next to you and you showed me how to use Basemap to draw a simple route, I might have a chance, but on my own, I give up in frustration what with all the folders and subfolders it creates and the inane jargon Garmin uses in its tutorials.